Friday, October 09, 2009

Barking

In a move that reflects the deep concerns within Government about the threat to UK jobs and the viability of Magna's plans, the Business Secretary hired PwC to scrutinise the arrangements separately from a German study.

PwC, one of the "big four" accountancy firms, is believed to have confirmed Lord Mandelson's fears that Magna's restructuring proposals for General Motors Europe are not the most commercially viable and that a buyer taking a fresh look at the business would pursue a different approach.

So, the NuLabour government—having examined an offer to buy an ailing car company—now believes that someone, anyone, else would be better for the great British worker and the once-great British economy.

You know, there's something really familiar about this situation and I just can't think what it is...

4 comments:

You're calling this one the wrong way round: Magna are the Phoenix guys in this deal, and PwC are calling them out (and gov.uk agreeing) precisely because Magna are taking giant bribes from the German government to pretend they can save the company without cutting any Kraut jobs.

A sane person buying Opel, in the unlikely event that such a person existed, would cut overpaid German jobs and keep all UK jobs, because the UK factories are the most productive in the group (partly due to the devaluation of the pound, sure, but silver linings etc).

Magna have pledged to do the opposite. This is one where economic sanity and Mandy are on the same side... not suggesting that's *why* he's opposed to it, but stopped clocks, etc.